The Beauty of Being Human

By Nirander Safaya Ph. D.

In this collection of 200 poems, written after retirement from a brilliant scientific career, author Nirander Safaya takes us on a panoramic journey of self-discovery. Collectively, these poems focus on: what it means to be Human. Attachment to life, desire to love and be loved, thirst for knowing, and consciousness are the hall marks of human nature. Dr. Safaya’s poetry portrays the beauty and the challenges of these human gifts and aspirations.

The Beauty of Being Human shows how our lives can become truly beautiful and fulfilled by a conscious understanding of the gifts we Sapiens possess. The book is thematically divided into 3 parts: Part I has 70 poems on Life & Living, Part II has 68 poems on Love & Passion, and Part III has 62 poems on Light & Consciousness. By presenting the poems in a sequential order, the poet is taking the serious reader through a gradual unfolding of his aesthetic and philosophical vision of the pragmatic, romantic, and spiritual aspirations of human heart and soul. It also provides a casual poetry lover the freedom to read these poems randomly and enjoy their message and beauty.

“Dazzling” and uplifting, the poetry of Nirander Safaya provides “surprising imagery…to uncommon and timeless effect”. The joys and sorrows of life and the saving grace of light and consciousness are the topics and the “sensory delight” of this book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 31, 2020
• ISBN: 9781664132474

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 by Dr. Nirander Safaya.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 10/30/2020

Xlibris

844-714-8691

www.Xlibris.com

816034

In loving memory of my wife,

Shama fotedar Safaya, B.Sc.,M.Sc.

June 4, 1941-March 17, 2020

Praise for

Reflections on Being Human

BeautifulNow listed Nirander Safaya’s Reflections on Being Human as one of the 10 most beautiful poetry books published in 2016, which included The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats; and commented that Safaya indulges in more romantic and spiritual aspirations, delving into universally perplexing existential questions about human nature and experience. . . Joy, sorrow, love, and loss are all poked and prodded in the search for true peace and happiness, as expressed by 152 beautiful poems.

—beautifulnow.is

[These] poems have a rare intellectual and spiritual depth as well as lyricism. That they are written in a formal style makes them even more appealing.

—A. Spencer, Editor for iUniverse

"Nirander Safaya’s extensive collection of poetry, Reflections on Being human, covers subjects from immediate to divine . . .Works toward truth and self-actualization with many poems hinting at ultimate, perfect unity. . . Strong narrative tendencies and surprising imagery make this collection a frequent surprise . . . a sensory delight . . .a dazzling and reflective mix . . . to uncommon and timeless effect."

—Foreword Clarion Review

This earnest collection tackles serious questions . . . Considers the subject of love both abstractly and concretely . . . Some pieces are joyful, full of appreciative gratitude . . . [some] verses turn darker . . . [some] become philosophical.

—Kirkus Review

[Safaya] contemplates concepts and emotions as diverse as sorrow, acceptance, regret, hope, desperation, peace, chaos and order, pleasure and pain, responsibility, grace and karma.

—Blueink Review

Contents

Author’s Note

Preface to the Edition

Acknowledgements

PART I: LIFE AND LIVING

1 An Aspiring Reed

2 My Life and Longings

3 The Journey

4 The Enchanted Hill

5 A Measure of Life

6 Horizon

7 Signs of Life

8 A Measure of Time

9 now

10 My Sheltering Abode

11 Here and Now

12 Equus, My Equus

13 What I Fear

14 Indifference

15 Affliction

16 Getting Old

17 Dear Partner

18 To My Children

19 Daughter

20 Gia

21 Ashley

22 Out of Memory

23 Silent Treatment

24 Sing My Pain Away

25 Free at Last

26 I Am the Dust You See

27 Death of an Angel

28 Lament

29 To Sorrow

30 Night

31 Mooning

32 Queen Moon

33 Aegean Experience

34 Morning Beauty

35 A Walk in the Woods

36 Sun and Rain

37 Spring Eternal

38 Promised Summer

39 Heather’s Hat

40 Swallows

41 Bulbul

42 Le Mina Bird

43 Kindred Spirits

44 Snow Geese

45 Elements

46 All-Natural

47 Winter Fairy

48 Windstorm

49 Ganga Mata

50 Gathering Storm

51 On Freedom

52 Thanksgiving

53 American Dream Life

54 Our Occupation

55 Insensitivity

56 Orphaned Child

57 Omen

58 A Live Shadow

59 Contradiction

60 A Cry for Acceptance

61 Mourning

62 The Fruit of Sin

63 Pearls of Friendship

64 To Stephen D. Merrill

65 Reminiscent

66 Mirage

67 Magic Chef

68 Go South

69 COVID-19

70 Learn from Regret

PART II: LOVE AND PASSION

71 Love’s Abode

72 Feeling Your Presence

73 My Love

74 I Love You

75 Flowers

76 The Seasons of Love

77 The Soul Mate

78 Beholden

79 Your Smile

80 Dreamed Ecstasy

81 The Blue Lake

82 The Astral Dance

83 Your Love Dance

84 Passion

85 Afraid to Admit Love

86 A Small Favor

87 A Sonnet

88 Partner Preference

89 A Tribute to You

90 Trust Yourself

91 Where Your Beauty Lies

92 A Caring Heart

93 Competition

94 Love and Freedom

95 LaDonna

96 Pursuit

97 Hope

98 Cheer Up

99 Moon’s Sister

100 Apsara

101 Bottled Perfume

102 Misplaced Love

103 Seeking Atonement

104 Your Sorrow

105 Desperation

106 My Dear

107 Desire

108 Make a Choice

109 Don’t Deny the Truth

110 Tears

111 Deception and Jealousy

112 Contention

113 Metamorphosis

114 Love’s Refrain

115 Love’s Demise

116 Bitten by Light

117 Differences

118 Let Her Go

119 Goodbye

120 Search Your Heart

121 Poor Return

122 Undoing

123 I Remember

124 Star Light

125 Express Letter

126 Dreams

127 Troubling Absence

128 Peace Comes Gently

129 The Passion to Keep

130 Do the Dead Talk?

131 A Vision

132 Love beyond Death

133 Your Silence

134 Love’s Labor Lost

135 Guilty Conscience

136 Shadow of Memories

137 Ode to the Heart

138 In Conclusion

PART III: LIGHT AND CONSCIOUSNESS

139 The Path

140 Divine Consciousness

141 My Identity

142 Character

143 Light in Sorrow

144 Somber Thoughts

145 Chaos and Order

146 Human Folly

147 Curiosity

148 Thickets and Pickets

149 Time

150 Is Time Real?

151 Origin and Purpose of Time

152 Man Will Rise Again

153 Heart and Soul

154 Waiting

155 Joe’s Faith

156 Healing

157 Truth Heals

158 Pleasure and Pain

159 Choices

160 Innocence

161 The Double

162 I Beseech You

163 Power of Emotions

164 Drawing a Line

165 Second Chances

166 Responsibility

167 Promenade

168 The Rain

169 The Weeping Willow

170 Our Hope

171 What Is Better?

172 Be a Victor

173 Selflessness

174 Faith

175 Split Images

176 The Truth

177 What I Want

178 Whence I Come

179 Belonging

180 My Divine Friend

181 You and Me

182 The Two Paths

183 Longing

184 Light Supreme

185 Grace and Karma

186 Star of Bethlehem

187 Thank You

188 At the End of the Day

189 Being and Becoming

190 Brahman

191 Atman

192 The Sense of I

193 The Tavern

194 Amber Wine

195 Chetana

196 Laurel Groves

197 The Yogi Says

198 Who Am I?

199 The Blissful Consciousness

200 My Prayer

Author’s Note

This book, titled The Beauty of Being Human, contains two hundred poems written after my retirement from a scientific career. Most of these poems came out first in 2016, in a book titled Reflections on Being Human, published by iUniverse, USA. To the present volume, fifty new poems have been added, and some of the previously published ones have been slightly revised. Hence, The Beauty of Being Human is a revised and enlarged edition of Reflections on Being Human.

The motivation for presenting the entire collection to my readers remains essentially the same as was expressed in the preface of the previous edition (see next page). My quest, particularly, has been to express in verse my deepest appreciation of life and its marvelous gifts of love, light, and consciousness to the humankind (Homo sapiens).

We sapiens are highly evolved and blessed beings on this planet Earth—a tiny blue dot in the vastness of the universe. Besides being capable of meeting the basic requirement for survival, sapiens display a vast array of feelings, thoughts, and behaviors that range from the most ordinary to the most sublime. Issues like science versus religion, matter versus spirit, logic versus emotion; or questions about life, love, truth, beauty, joy, disappointment, death, afterlife, etc. have persistently appealed and intrigued us throughout the ages. My poems reflect on these aspects of human nature and its awesome beauty.

I see tremendous beauty and privilege in being a human because in spite of all the difficulties, defeats, challenges, and sorrows experienced in our lives, we keep on trying and progressing to a higher ground. This is, perhaps, due to the reason that our consciousness has an inherent desire and faculty for seeking love and knowledge for its own perfection. The perfection that is required to fully understand the truth behind all appearances and existence itself.

My poetry endeavors to capture a glimpse of what it means to be human and how we can see and transcend our shortcomings. This year the whole world has been gripped by the menacing pandemic of the coronavirus, COVID-19. However, we are fighting this existential threat with incredible courage and hope. This too affirms the beauty of being human!

Nirander Safaya

Leander, Texas

October 30, 2020

Preface to the Edition

Reflections on Being Human

Many people think that science and religion are incompatible, and never the twain shall meet. This feeling persists despite the fact that both these domains endeavor to find truth. Both place full faith in their own methods and findings, whether they are based on a mathematical equation, scientific experimentation, intuition, spiritual revelation, or hymns that touch the soul. In the same vein, poetry offers a unique medium to explore and express the truth and beauty of human nature and our aspirations for aesthetic and spiritual fulfillment.

Any attempt to bridge the gulf between the scientific and spiritual visions of humankind is useful. It leads us to discover and accept truth without compromising our faith in ourselves, our heritage, and the spirit and purpose that underlie our existence. Poets and philosophers have played a significant role in this process for centuries. Because of the inherent aesthetics and figurative power in poetry, its thought content is generally easier to digest than that of science or philosophy.

Having worked as a scientist for forty years, with an abiding interest in world literature, philosophy, and religions, I was tempted to paint some of the realities of life with the evocative brush of poetry. So after my retirement, I began to write poems about life, love, and light to illustrate how our ordinary experiences lead to self-knowledge and some understanding of human and divine nature. I chose poetry because of its precision, as science has, and its appeal to feelings, as religion has. Besides, poetry leans on philosophy for its ethics and aesthetics.

In this collection of my poems, Reflections on Being Human, I have tried to catch some glimpses of the joys and sorrows of life and love, and the saving grace of light—all of which contribute to human experience and existence. I hope my readers will take some comfort in thinking that hard facts and soft feelings can coexist and that our scientific and spiritual paths for discovering truth will eventually get closer. In the meantime we must continue enjoying life in all its multiple forms of art that deeply touch our heart.

Nirander M. Safaya

Austin, Texas

November 16, 2015

iUniverse revision date: February 3, 2016

Acknowledgements

My deepest gratitude goes to my life-long partner and wife, Shama, and to our children – Seema, Pushkin and Rubin – for inspiring me to observe, think, and write. I thank my brother, Dataji, for encouraging me to get my poems published. My sister, Sarla, and her husband Dr. Mohan Wali have given a generous ear to my poetry. I am pleased to see a similar curiosity and motivation appearing in two of my grandchildren, Hunter and Gia, for the art of poetry.

Since my present book, The Beauty of Being Human is a revised and enlarged edition of my previous book, Reflections on Being Human, I was fortunate to receive appreciative as well as critical feed-back from a wide array of my readers. I am grateful to them all. I thank Dr. Stephen Merrill, Dan Christ, Denny Wilshire, Sindhura Nullori, Ana Milly Leon, Cheri Munshi, Priya Safaya, and Bill and Rose Marie Wagnor for critiquing my work and providing helpful suggestions.

The publication of The Beauty of Being Human was made possible by Xlibris, whom I heartly thank: especially, Fel Garcia, (publishing consultant), Shannon Boris (check-in coordinator), Andy Ferrer (editor), Elaine Ocharda (design consultant), Emman Villaran (manuscript service representative) Joseph Ramsey (illustrations coordinator), and Michelle Postrano (assistant manager for production).

I wish to commend Kaye Parsons (publication services associate), Jennifer Baya (cover designer), and Sairiel Taruc (interior designer) for bringing my book to life.

PART I

Life and Living

sunset.jpg

Life and Living

The unexamined life is not worth living.

—Socrates

The calm circumference of life

When I would fain have kept,

Time caught me in the tide of strife

And to center swept.

—Hafez

The universe is change;

Our life is what our thoughts make it.

—Marcus Aurelius

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An Aspiring Reed

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This little flute of a reed thou

hast carried over hills and dales,

and hast breathed through it